Generally, persons who wear eyeglasses remove and replace them frequently during the course of a day. When an eyeglass wearer removes his or her eyeglasses, it is usually desired to keep the eyeglasses close at hand in order to be able to replace them conveniently. Upon removing eyeglasses, therefore, eyeglass wearers frequently place the eyeglasses in a pocket of a shirt or coat, or hang the eyeglasses from a neck opening of a sweater or a blouse by inserting a temple piece of the eyeglasses down inside the garment. However, eyeglasses may fall from a shirt or coat pocket or from a neck opening of a sweater or blouse when the eyeglass wearer bends over, which is at best an annoyance and which can result in damage to the eyeglasses. In addition, certain styles of garments do not have pockets or neck openings suitable for holding eyeglasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,894,887 to Ward disclosed an eyeglass carrier clip which could be clipped to a shirt pocket of an eyeglass wearer for supporting a pair of eyeglasses by one of its temple pieces. According to the patent, as a result of the pendulous nature of the support of eyeglasses, the eyeglass carrier clip of the patent would retain the eyeglasses even when the user bent over. However, the eyeglass carrier clip of the patent requires that the user wear a garment with a pocket suitable for clipping the device, which may not always be desired. In addition, eyeglass wearers often pay premium prices to obtain eyeglasses of designs which they consider to be stylish and attractive, and items clipped to a shirt pocket such as the eyeglass carrier clip of the patent might be regarded as unattractive by many of such eyeglass wearers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,305,934 to Grey disclosed a tool and eyeglass holder which could be hung about the neck of a wearer for holding a pair of eyeglasses and a screwdriver and spare screws for repairing the eyeglasses. Holders specifically described in the patent included a flexible cord or other elongated flexible member, each end of which was either directly attached to a loop element or formed into a loop by crimping back onto itself. The loops at the ends of the elongated flexible member were respectively connected to corresponding loops at the ends of a tool container for the screwdriver and screws by interlocking the respective loops. A loop element extended below the tool container from which a pair of eyeglasses could be hung by inserting a temple piece of the eyeglasses through an aperture defined by the loop. Because of the interlocked loops connecting the flexible member to the tool container, the tool and eyeglass holder of the patent would have to be slipped over the head of the user to be hung about the user's neck, which could be inconvenient and disarrange coiffured hair. Moreover, movement by a user of the tool and eyeglass holder of the patent would be expected to tend to cause the flexible member to become twisted or kinked, which users might regard as unsightly for an item hung about the neck.